NEC's Jazz Studies and CMA Programs Announce Winter-Spring Season

New England Conservatory (NEC) has announced a wide-ranging spring season of jazz and contemporary musical arts events featuring a diverse roster of ensembles and programming. Concerts are free and open to the public. For more information on all concerts, and a complete event calendar, visit https://necmusic.edu/concerts.

Jazz Studies welcomes Jason Moran, Dave Holland and Michael Formanek for residencies. NEC alum Omar Thomas joins the NEC Jazz Orchestra for Jazz and the Struggle for Freedom and Equality. The orchestra also features special guest Jim McNeely in Groove Merchant: The Music of Thad Jones.

This year marks the 50th anniversary season for the Contemporary Musical Arts program, which celebrates alumni with Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Aoife O'Donovan, featured in a residency and concert titled Prodigal Daughter: Americana. CMA also welcomes Fay Victor for a residence and concert, and ends the anniversary in June with Contemporary Musical Arts Coast to Coast and Around the World.

WINTER/SPRING JAZZ AND CONTEMPORARY MUSICAL ARTS SEASON

Tuesday, February 7 | Jazz and CMA Faculty Spotlight

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
CMA/Jazz Faculty Spotlight Concert | New England Conservatory (necmusic.edu)

Faculty members from Jazz Studies and Contemporary Musical Arts present a wide-ranging program that highlights the breadth and depth of the departments with a diverse range of music including West African percussion, traditional folk song, standards by Strayhorn, Ellington, Monk and Kern, and an excerpt from Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" featuring a piano, guitar and drum trio. Original compositions and arrangements by NEC faculty include pieces by Jorrit Dijkstra and Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, Lautaro Mantilla's arrangement of Tom Waits' "Green Grass," a medley honoring Ottoman-Armenian composer Tatyos Efendi and Jerry Leake's arrangement of traditional Ewe music. Performers include CMA co-chair Hankus Netsky, pianists Lewis Porter and Anthony Coleman, clarinetist Mal Barsamian, vocalist Cristi Catt, pianist Ben Schwendener and bassists Bob Nieske and Cecil McBee.

Tuesday, February 14 | NEC Wind Ensemble: A Valentine to Contemporary Musical Arts

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
NEC Wind Ensemble: A Valentine to Contemporary Musical Arts | New England Conservatory (necmusic.edu)

This collaborative concert celebrates 50th anniversary of CMA. CMA instrumentalists join the Wind Ensemble to perform CMA co-chair Hankus Netsky's klezmer "Nonantum Bulgar" and Michael Gandolfi's landmark "Vientos y Tangos" variations. The program also features singer/songwriter Delfina Cheb-Terrab, a CMA alum, and CMA vocalists in New England shape note singing as a prelude to William Schuman's arrangements of "Chester" and "When Jesus Wept;' and Thomas Duffy's genre-crossing "Three Places in New Haven."

Aoife O'Donovan Residency

Singer/songwriter and CMA alum O'Donovan returns to NEC for a residency during which she'll work and perform with students.

Monday, Feb 13: Masterclass with Aoife O'Donovan

1 - 3 p.m., Williams Hall
O'Donovan offers feedback to CMA students presenting their original songs.

Tuesday, Feb 14: Artist Talk with Aoife O'Donovan

12:30 p.m., Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
A conversation with O'Donovan about her work, approach to writing and career.

Wednesday, February 15 | Aoife O'Donovan: Prodigal Daughter - Americana Revisited

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/contemporary-musical-arts-aoife-odonovan-prodigal-daughter-americana-revisited

This concert features CMA alum O'Donovan with CMA students, presenting a program of contemporary American folk songs, including original songs by CMA students, new takes on traditional music, and performances with O'Donovan of Bullfrogs Croon Suite and King of All Birds.

GRAMMY Award-winning artist Aoife O'Donovan operates in a thrilling musical world beyond genre. Deemed "a vocalist of unerring instinct" by the New York Times, she has released three critically-acclaimed and boundary-blurring solo albums including her most recent record, 2022's boldly orchestrated and literarily crafted Age Of Apathy. Recorded and written over the course of Winter and Spring 2021 with acclaimed producer Joe Henry, Age Of Apathy is "stunning" (Rolling Stone) and "taps into the propulsion of prime Joni Mitchell" (Pitchfork). Age of Apathy is nominated for multiple awards, including a GRAMMY nomination for Best Folk Album and two GRAMMY nominations for "Prodigal Daughter" featuring Allison Russell. Elsewhere, the song "B61" was awarded 2022 Song Of The Year by Folk Alliance International.

A savvy and generous collaborator, Aoife is one third of the group I'm With Her with bandmates Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz. The trio's debut album See You Around was hailed as "willfully open-hearted" by NPR Music. I'm With Her earned an Americana Music Association Award in 2019 for Duo/Group of the Year, and a GRAMMY-award in 2020 for Best American Roots Song.

O'Donovan spent the preceding decade as co-founder and front woman of the string band, Crooked Still and is the featured vocalist on The Goat Rodeo Sessions - the group with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. She has appeared as a featured vocalist with over a dozen symphonies including the National Symphony Orchestra, written for Alison Krauss, performed with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas, and spent a decade as a regular contributor to the radio variety shows "Live From Here" and "A Prairie Home Companion."

Tuesday, February 28 | Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra with Michael Formanek

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/nec-jazz-composers-workshop-orchestra-michael-formanek

Renowned bassist Michael Formanek's residency at NEC, February 26-28, culminates in this concert with the Jazz Composers Workshop Orchestra.

Wednesday, March 1 | Artist Talk with Omar Thomas

1:30 p.m., Burnes Hall

Thursday, March 2 | NEC Jazz Orchestra presents Jazz and the Struggle for Freedom and Equality with special guest Omar Thomas

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/nec-jazz-orchestra-jazz-and-struggle-freedom-and-equality

The NEC Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Ken Schaphorst, will perform landmark compositions and arrangements created to combat racism and bigotry. Selections will include Charles Mingus's "Haitian Fight Song" and selections from Duke Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige." NEC alum Omar Thomas will conduct his own composition, "We Will Know: an LGBT Civil Rights Piece in Four Movements."

Tuesday, March 7 | Panel Discussion with Rez Abbasi, Josh Feinberg, Nima Janmohammadi and Robert Larabee as part of the Bimusicality Symposium

2:30 p.m., Williams Hall

Tuesday, March 7 | Concert Performance by Naya Baaz as part of the Bimusicality Symposium

8 p.m., Williams Hall

Wednesday, March 8 | Ambrose Akinmusire Masterclass

2:30 p.m., Pierce Hall

Thursday, March 16 | Jason Moran Residency Concert

8 p.m., Brown Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/jason-moran-residency-concert-1

Performance by student ensembles coached by Jason Moran as part of his residency at the school from March 13-16.

Monday, March 27 | NEC Jazz Honors Ensemble

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/nec-jazz-honors-ensemble

Each year, an audition committee of professional musicians and faculty selects a few exceptional student ensembles to represent the NEC Honors Ensemble Program. The ensembles work with a faculty coach and are given an opportunity to perform a spring recital in NEC's Jordan Hall. The members of this year's Jazz Honors Ensemble are Will Fredendall, flute; Garrett Frees, saxophone; Jonathan Paik, piano; Will Mabuza, bass; and Caleb Montague, drums. Their coach is Frank Carlberg.

Tuesday, March 28 | CMA Honors Ensemble

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/nec-contemporary-musical-arts-honors-ensemble

Each year, an audition committee of professional musicians and faculty selects a few exceptional student ensembles to represent the NEC Honors Ensemble Program. The ensembles work with a faculty coach and are given an opportunity to perform a spring recital in NEC's Jordan Hall. This year's CMA Honors Ensemble was coached by Hankus Netsky.

Thursday, March 30 | Residency Concert: The Music of Dave Holland

8 p.m., Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
https://necmusic.edu/events/residency-concert-music-dave-holland-0

Legendary bassist Dave Holland, an NEC Visiting Artist-in-Residence, performs with two NEC ensembles as part of his residency at the school from March 26-30

Thursday, April 6 | NEC Wildcard Honors Ensemble

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/nec-wildcard-honors-ensemble

Each year, an audition committee of professional musicians and faculty selects a few exceptional student ensembles to represent the NEC Honors Ensemble Program. The ensembles work with a faculty coach and are given an opportunity to perform a spring recital in NEC's Jordan Hall. This year's Wildcard Honors ensemble is coached by Frank Carlberg and Dominique Eade.

Tuesday, April 11 | The Music of Fay Victor

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall

The culmination of Fay Victor's residency which includes an artist talk and workshop with students, this concert features CMA students and faculty in collaboration with Fay Victor, performing her works as well as original student compositions.

Fay Victor is an improvising vocalist, composer, lyricist and educator riding all the chasms and seams of musics that are improvisational and conversational in nature. A Brooklyn-based sound artist/composer, she hones a unique vision for the vocalist's role in jazz and improvised music. Victor utilizes a distinctive vocalizing, language and performing approach with the foundation of the jazz vocal idiom, now encompassing an "everything is everything" aesthetic, bringing in references that span the globe. Victor sees the vocal instrument in itself as full of possibilities for sound exploration, the voice a direct and powerful conduit for language and messages in an improvising context. All of these ideas aim to push the vocal envelope to forge greater expressive possibilities. In Victor's 10 critically acclaimed albums as a leader one can hear the through-line of expansive expression leading up to her most recent release, BARN SONGS (Northern Spy Records) with her Chamber Trio featuring Darius Jones (alto saxophone) & Marika Hughes (cello).

Thursday, April 20 | NEC Jazz Orchestra presents Groove Merchant: The Music of Thad Jones, special guest Jim McNeely

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall
https://necmusic.edu/events/nec-jazz-orchestra-ken-schaphorst-groove-merchant-music-thad-jones

Pianist and composer Jim McNeely joins the NEC Jazz Orchestra, directed by Ken Schaphorst, to celebrate the music of the legendary composer and arranger Thad Jones, born 100 years ago on March 28, 1923.

Tuesday, April 25 | Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra Concert

7:30 p.m., Jordan Hall

Sunday, May 7 | NEC Contemporary Musical Arts Ensemble Festival

10 a.m.-9 p.m., Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
Day-long event showcasing CMA ensembles.

June | Contemporary Musical Arts Coast to Coast and Around the World
A week of performances all over the globe, produced by NEC CMA alumna and guest faculty Magdalena Abrego, featuring faculty, students, and alumni. Broadcast internationally online.

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